


Underneath Your Clothes

by azephirin



Series: Charleston [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Alternate Universe, Charleston, Christmas, Clothes, Coming Out, Established Relationship, Exes, Ficlet, Gay Male Character, Holiday, Hugs, Love, M/M, Parties, South Carolina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-11
Updated: 2010-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azephirin/pseuds/azephirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Underneath your clothes, there's an endless story....</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath Your Clothes

**Author's Note:**

> [As requested](http://azephirin.livejournal.com/90641.html?thread=1042705) by [](http://lillian13.livejournal.com/profile)[**lillian13**](http://lillian13.livejournal.com/), who wanted _Dean/Chris ([Charleston!verse](http://archiveofourown.org/series/2191)), "Don we now our gay apparel."_ This takes place some time after "[Touch in Flood](http://archiveofourown.org/works/59470)."

"We've got to leave in about twenty minutes." Dean's fastening his cufflinks as he pokes his head into the bathroom. "You almost ready?" When Chris doesn't answer, Dean glances up and sees that he's staring apparently mindlessly in the mirror, feet bare, shirt on but unbuttoned. "Dude, seriously, we're gonna be late."

"We don't have to go to this," Chris says.

"It's the Christmas benefit for the hospital. I think we really do, Dr. Star of the Trauma Center." He turns Chris around and starts buttoning up his shirt. "Where's your vest?"

"You don't…you don't have to do this."

"Get you dressed? Obviously I do, or else we're gonna be late and Mercer'll glare."

Chris seems to focus on him for the first time, which Dean takes as an improvement. "You look good in that," Chris says.

"Thanks. I mean, I feel a little like a monkey, but I can don some gay apparel when the need arises."

Chris puts his hands over Dean's, pausing him at the second-highest button. "If we go to this, everybody is going to know."

"Well, yeah. Didn't Elspeth say there's going to be somebody announcing people? Move your hands."

Chris keeps them where they are. "I mean, if we go to this together, everybody is going to know."

"You mean everybody is going to know that we're together? Seeing each other or whatever?"

"Right."

"Chris, everybody already knows that."

"But it's not… They haven't had to see it. It's not in their faces."

Dean does move his hands now, putting them back down at his sides, but he doesn't step away from Chris. "Do you not want to walk in there with me? Is that what this is about?"

"No! God, Dean, no. I just— Everybody knows I'm gay. It's not a secret and I'm not embarrassed about it. But you don't have to— You shouldn't have to say anything about yourself that you don't want to."

Dean does step back this time, to look Chris up and down. "How long were you and Prentice together?"

Chris blinks. "Uh, a little over five years."

"He ever go to this with you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"His father was president of the Citadel. He was a general. He would— It wouldn't have been appropriate for his son to be seen with another man."

"Wasn't Prentice a newspaper reporter?"

"For the _State_. He still is, as far as I know."

"So he could ask or tell anybody he wanted to."

"At work, sure."

"Yeah, but you know what? He was a fucking adult who could make his own fucking choices. Who cares whether his dad was the president of the Citadel or of the United States or whether he was a goddamn garbageman. The more I hear about that guy, the more he sounds like a giant dick."

Chris makes a comment under his breath that Dean, appealing to his better nature, chooses to ignore. It does, however, mean that Chris is cheering up, and that's a positive. Especially since they have to leave in ten minutes, and Chris still doesn't have all his clothes on.

Dean lays his hands on Chris's face, takes a deep breath, and says, "Look, this is probably going to come out wrong, because I'm not—I pretty much suck at saying stuff. But. I'm not going to be with you and pretend that I'm not. That's fucking lame. You're—you're my…well, _boyfriend_ sounds like we're still in high school, and _partner_ sounds like we have a law firm or something. But anyway, whatever that is, you're it. And I don't care if everybody knows. In fact, everybody **should** know. Everybody knows that Elspeth and Joe are married, and Mercer and his wife, and everybody knows that Anna's with her boyfriend, and Tyrone's with his girlfriend, and all the rest. Why should this be any different? And I know we're in South Carolina, but they can man up and join the twenty-first century."

Chris reaches and pulls Dean closer, and they stand like that for a few moments. "I love you," Dean whispers, so low it's barely audible. "I'm proud to be with you."

And then he twists, trying to get away and flee downstairs to do something, anything, but Chris's hands are tight and strong in his hair and on his back, and Dean is caught. "You think you can run away after you say something like that?" Dean makes a nonverbal grumble. "I love you, too."

They breathe together. They are half an hour late.


End file.
